Saturday, April 16, 2016

This spring, Hal "Food Stamps" Steinbrenner is battling Comcast for refusing the YES Network's 33 percent rate hike. Thus, 900,000 cable customers across Jersey and Pennsylvania are being denied the chance to watch this exciting Yankee team on its quest for the 2016 Wild Card away game slot.

The Yankees - (who own 20 percent of YES; Jerry Hall-Murdoch owns the rest) - want to charge each Comcast customer $5.36 per month to watch YES. Right now, Comcast viewers across Pennsylvania can't get the games. They are the lucky ones.

Frankly, I'm rooting for Comcast here, though the system where YES Network games are folded into a huge package is horrible.

If you want Yankee games, you should be able to buy YES. If you don't, you should not have to pay $5.36 per month for a channel you won't watch. When any sports package is shoved down people's throats, it is nothing more than a tax. Why isn't the tea party protesting this? If Scranton enacted a monthly $5.36 tax to feed homeless children, they would march on City Hall. Why do we let cable providers and sports networks get away with it?

So recapping here:

Reasons Why the Yankee Ownership and Upper Management Totally Suck.

1. They don't want regular people to attend games in the high-priced seats. (See John Oliver, Mutant Ninja Turtles, etc.)

2. They make Stubhub buyers walk blocks upon blocks to get secondary market tickets. (See long lines, opening day fiasco, etc.)

3. They want to charge an excessive fee for YES. (See Comcast)

4. They are strangling Yankee radio broadcasts with ads. (See the pre-game show - have you listened? - is nothing but a cavalcade of ads. They actually play commercials through the National Anthem, then announce that "This Salute to America" was sponsored by such-and-such. It's sickening.)

5. They don't spend on high-priced free agents. (See David Price.)

6. They don't spend on high-priced prospects. (See Yoan Moncada.)

7. They are selling a tiresome product, devoid of excitement.I recognize that it's only April. But right now, I believe we all have dramatically under-estimated how bad the 2016 Yankees will be.

It's already becoming hard to follow this team. They are a Crackerjacks box with no surprise, a formula movie with a bad ending. They score two runs, then go to bed. If you're looking for one exciting player who might break out... don't bother with the Yankees.

The new fear is that Luis Severino is not the Second Coming of Pedro Martinez, but more the latest in a line of Novas, Vidals, Mitres, etc. Every hopeful projection for 2016 involved Severino becoming a solid pitcher. Now, he looks like a shorter version of Pineda.